Movie Mechanisms for Chemists Curly Arrows Made Easier 23 March 2011 Jason Eames Department of...
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Transcript of Movie Mechanisms for Chemists Curly Arrows Made Easier 23 March 2011 Jason Eames Department of...
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists
Curly Arrows Made Easier
23 March 2011
Jason Eames
Department of Chemistry
Contents
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 2
Introduction
Background: Problems with Reaction Mechanisms
Aims
Construction of Movie Mechanisms
Outcome
Trials and Tribulations
Introduction
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 3
What is a reaction mechanism?
Ability to either navigate or construct a “chemical pathway” from a starting point, such as starting material A, to an end point (product B) using curly arrow notation and chemical symbols
A B
Analogy – “a £2 coin on a piece of string”
Introduction
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 4
What is a reaction mechanism?
Ability to either navigate or construct a “chemical pathway” from a starting point, such as starting material A, to an end point (product B) using curly arrow notation and chemical symbols
A B
Analogy – “a £2 coin on a piece of string”
Introduction
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 5
What is a reaction mechanism?
Ability to either navigate or construct a “chemical pathway” from a starting point, such as starting material A, to an end point (product B) using curly arrow notation and chemical symbols
A B
Analogy – “a £2 coin on a piece of string”
Reaction Mechanisms - Ability to Navigate
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 6
Why bother making movie mechanisms?
Mechanisms contain a great deal of (multiple layered) information
Information needs to be deconstructed then reconstructed to aid understanding
Need to practise about 40 hours to get to grips with it
Primarily involves learning a set of simple rules which then can be used sequentially
Similar to the subconscious skills used in “learning to drive” a car and navigate from point A to point B
Background: problems with reaction mechanisms
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 7
Subconscious skill: can be difficult to explain to students
Not formally taught: expectation is that students pick up the skills throughout their studies
Student feedback and student experience
Course evaluation: some students found curly arrows the most enjoyable and others found them the least enjoyable
Reality: most students struggled drawing them on their own
On-campus & off-campus students
Traditional method not suitable for online distant learning (FdSc)
Aims
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 8
To create a set of short animated reaction mechanisms with narrative (1-2 mins; <3 MB)
Must be simple, suitable for small screens and clear
Must be quick, easy and cheap to make
Multi-formats (for computers & smart phones)
Easy to download or view (e-bridge or YouTube)
Construction of Movie Mechanisms
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 9
Microsoft Movie Maker (competent in <3 h)
“Stop-motion” Pictures created using ChemDraw
Text-to-speech versus Me, Myself and I
Easy to use and wrap up files into a movie (*.wmv)
Freeware to convert to other formats (*.mpeg, *.avi etc)
Construction of Movie Mechanisms
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 10
Construction of Movie Mechanisms
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 11
Mechanisms
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 12
Focussed on 12 core reaction mechanisms
Narrative focussed on programming/training them to recognise the signals/keywords
Example: reduction of a ketone
Outcomes
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 13
Student evaluation: requested more movie mechanisms
Extend concept to other topics:
How to work through a particular problem/calculation
ODL students – found it “impossible to learn (them) without watching the movie mechanisms”
Reality: students are more competent at drawing reaction mechanisms in workshops
Trials and tribulations
Movie Mechanisms for Chemists | 14
Firstly create the silent movie
Images
Write down the narrative
Speak slow enough to give students time to think ahead
Record each paragraph separately